Friday night was Irie's reward for playing in the piano recital. She had 3 girlfriends spend the night - Abbie, Laly, and Théa. Our friend Kurt had a belated birthay picnic at the Base Nature that night so we took the girls there to hopefully get out some energy on the playground and to avoid feeling cramped in our small apt. In the video you'll notice them playing "Zombie" with some of the other kids from Kurt's party/picnic.
On the way home, walking through the port, we stumbled upon "gondola jousting" (my term) and had a laugh at their expense. We bought the girls ice cream, then headed home tired. Ha, between Irie's meltdowns from feeling excluded (there are always language issues) and the excitement of 4 girls in two twin beds in one small bedroom, it was 1:30 am when I finally dared lay down.
Sat. and Sun. mornings I played my last 2 days of beach volleyball with the regulars who show up every weekend morning. I met them through Edouard and there are some very fine players. I will miss the exercise, their kindness toward this foreigner, and jumping into the sea between games to cool off!
Saturday night we had Irie's teacher, Khaled, and his girlfriend AnnaPaula over for dinner. We were both tired from the night before (and volleyball) and found ourselves not wanting to have guests. As usually happens, we ended up having a great time! We started at our apt. with the customary Apero, ie. drinks and snacks, then we headed to the beach at dusk for another picnic. They were both très à l'aise and we found ourselves sharing the evening in 3 languages: french, english and italian. Another great thing about Europe one learns after awhile is that there are so many languages in such a small geographic area, that people find ways to communicate through their differences. AnnaPaula was born in Italy but lives and works in Paris now and speaks french just fine, and they both speak english to some degree so we all spoke in whatever language worked at the moment. Not that Lisa or I speak any italian, but just as they like to practice their english we like to try on other sounds and words. What I've found with my still-limited french vocabulary is that often I don't have a word in my repertoire so I'll find a way to say something with the words I do know. Irie got to play a game of freeze tag with her teacher (and all of us) and we enjoyed being seaside well after dark. A fine evening!
Sunday night was the Fête de la Musique which takes place throughout France every year on the Summer Solstice. We headed down to the plage about 7:30 and they had blocked off the street along the entire bord de la mer.
They had stages set up every 50-100 meters and we heard all kinds of music. A DJ, rock-n-roll, reggae, various dance groups, Sinatra-style jazz, and as you can see in the video New Orleans jazz and even country music with the line dancing that is surprisingly popular here. It makes me laugh that the French were so villified by the right-wingers a few years ago, yet here they are wearing their red-white-and-blue and proudly kicking up their heels to American country music. I think there is a lesson in there somewhere. Anyway, we met up with Laurent and Nathalie
and spent the evening walking from Frejus plage to St. Raphael and back milling about, listening to the various bands, and just watching all the people.
We even caught a rainbow
It was yet another night that we were all out after midnight and today we are all feeling it. Here's a collage of events from the weekend.
1 comment:
The jousting looked like a great drinking game, kind of like our raft trip on the Sturgeon River last weekend.
Enjoyed the jazz, didn't know what to think of the line dancing.
Have a wonderful weekend at Bon Pin.
Rick - happy Father's Day, a day late.
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